Just a different way of life.

Thu 3 Dec

        Resolve to get up with the first sound of the first alarm. And do so, wash and dress before the family has moved. Some satisfaction.

        Read the news from san Bernardino. And remember that there are poets there, the same as painters in Paris. Think about the French man at the clay pigeon shoot years ago, using an American pump action shotgun when all of his colleagues used the more conventional double barrelled apparatus. He shot five times, they twice. There was only a single clay dise for them to destroy. He missed four times and shot down a pigeon every turn. Not a sporting weapon. Not available for private use here.

One must imagine that America's United States are defending the right to murder and that self defences and individual safety are secondary issues.

        Drink the morning coffee, cheese on toast. Butter melted, en the hot bread. Coffee strong and black, yellow light from the electric lamps; blue grey diffusion in the windows from the overcast shy.

        The son's untidiness, the wife's sewing machine. The sitting room cluttered, if it were bigger, or smaller, it would be the same.

        The son is at school, and he is happy to be there.

Take the little package out of the house, along the" pavements grey"dream of places. far away. The streets have many christmas stoppers, the post office is full of people sending parcels. stand in the queue, it moves forward slowly, five people in the office dealing with customers, handing out parcels, accepting registered mail, answering inquiries. And then- hand over the small packet, the item for EBay, where the postage is more Than the content is worth.

So what, as long as the customer is happy.

Wander on through the streets, down a narrow alley. Pass through an old archway, sixteenth century AD,, and turn tight. Go into the cafe, buy a roll, a cup of their good coffee. The young girl behind the till has difficulties, needs to call the manager, he is impatient, he taps in his password, fixes the problem. The young girl is almost in tears, the manager has been known for his bad temper.

But all is well, in the end.

sit down in a corner, and watch people at their coffee. A young Syrian couple, him dressed in an anorak, navy blue, with blue jeans, and she with her traditional headscarves and long coat with its hood, also in blue. They have a young daughter with them, or a son, in a red pocket. They come in, drink their coffee, and leave.

There is no news anymore at the shooting rampage in California. Shooting rampages in the USA are seen as a part of normality, like suicide bombings in Iraq and mayhem in Syria. Just a different way of life.